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Lynas
INTRODUCTION The debate over Lynas Corporation Limited 's project in Malaysia has developed considerably over the last year. Lynas Corporation Limited is an Australian rare earth mining company founded in 1983 with its main mining and concentration plant in Mount Weld, Western Australia (Lynas Corporation 2006). Aiming to be the global leader in the rare earth industry, Lynas is having their refinery plant worth $ 787million (approximately RM 2.5 billion) built in the Gebeng Industrial State, eastern state of Pahang, Malaysia (Ng, E. 2012). As of 30 June 2011, the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) is already 60% complete (Lynas Corporation 2011) Nevertheless, Malaysians had no idea about this until the news was being published on New York Times. Instantly, it turned into a controversial issue in Malaysia. Citizens were outraged that the government had not disclosed any information to the public. Fears about radioactive leakages which is a detriment to health, environmental and economic aspects exacerbates the whole situation. This paper will examine the different discourses of the associated parties in regards to this project, namely Lynas Corporation, Malaysian government and Malaysian citizens. Comparisons were also made with the Bukit Merah incident, Fukushima Daiichi II and Chernobyl to reflect its sustainability. FINDINGS When Lynas Corporation Limited, hereafter LYNAS, announced the construction of their rare earth refinery plant, LAMP (supposedly the largest in the world) in Gebeng, Kuantan in 2011, it instantly became the hottest topic for discussion among Malaysians. Rare earth comprises of 15 elements in the periodic table, crucial for the production of high technology appliances such as smart phones, digital cameras and flat screen televisions (King, B. 2008) What LYNAS is planning to do is bring in raw rare earth minerals from their plant in Mount Weld to be processed into products in Gebeng, Malaysia (Lynas Corporation n.d.). What is it about this


Bibliography: **Abdullah Sani, A. H. 2012, 'Lynas demands apology from local NGOs ', Malay Mail, April 10. **Albrey, R 2012, Lynas Corporation for dummies (and Australians), New Mandala, viewed 11 April 2012, . Care 2 Petition Site n.d., Green Ban on Rare Earth Exports to Malaysia, viewed 29 May 2012, . Consumer Association Penang n.d., Chronology of events in the Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth development, Penang, viewed 26 May 2012, . Coons, R. & Valk, V. 2011, 'China reduces rare earth export quota ', Chemical Week, 3 January, p. 11. Daniel, Z. 2012, Correspondents report- rare earth plant a Malaysian election issue, podcast, ABC Correspondents Report, 3 June, viewed 6 June 2012, . Ichihara, M. & Harding, A. 1995, Human Rights, the Environment and Radioactive Waste: A Study of the Asian Rare Earth Case in Malaysia, Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, vol. 4, issue 1, pp. 1-6. Jamasmie, C. 2012, 'Lynas putting Malaysian opposition to its operations behind it: analysts ', MINING.com, 18 April, viewed 20 May 2012, . King, B. 2008, Rare earth elements: a beginner 's guide, Daily Reckoning, Victoria, 19 June, viewed 20 May 2012, . Latiff, R. & Lingam, L. 2012, 'DPM: Panel on Lynas to look at issues in detail;, New Straits Time, 19 March. **Lee, Y. C., Laidin, A. Z., Ibrahim, A., Mat Din, A., Lee, S. W. & Loganathan, P. 2011, Rare earth industries: moving Malaysia 's green economy forward, government report, Academy of Sciences Malaysia & National Professors ' Council, Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, Malaysia. Lynas Corporation 2006, About Lynas, New South Wales, n.d., viewed 20 May 2012, . Lynas Corporation Limited 2011, Annual report, Lynas, Sydney, New South Wales. Lynas Corporation n.d., Providing a new source of supply of Rare Earths, viewed 10 June 2012, . LynasMalaysia 2011, Nick Curtis on why Lynas chose Malaysia, video, YouTube, May 11, viewed 15 May 2012, . Macpherson, C. 2012, 'Malaysian anger at government 's secretive approval of Lynas ' rare earths plant ', Antinuclear, March 20, viewed 20 May 2012, . Malaysian Insider 2011, 'Side views- letter from chairman of Lynas Corporation, Nicholas Curtis, to Fuziah Salleh ', June 22, viewed 9 June 2012, . Ng, E. 2012, 'Malaysia sets 2 new rules for rare earth plant ', Bloomberg Businessweek, June 15. Pendragon, R. 2012, 'Lynas issue: not learning from bitter experience ', Free Malaysia Today, April 13, . Soo, J. H. & Lee, W. T. 2011, 'Huge profit for Lynas, huge social costs for us ', online posting, 28 August, Stop Lynas, viewed 15 May 2012, . Tan, Lee 2012, Lynas rare earth project sparks huge campaign in Malaysia, Chain Reaction, vol. 114, Apr n.d., pp. 43-45. Tanquintic- Misa, E. 2012, 'Malaysian Trade Minister Backs Lynas Corp. Rare Earths Plant as Catalyst of Economic Change ', International Business Times, May 14, viewed 8 June 2012, . Teoh, S. 2012, 'AELB says will wait on minister, signals more delays for Lynas ', Malaysian Insider, May 15, viewed 30 May 2012, . Thair, Bianca 2012, Lynas ' rare earths pendulum, Australia 's Paydirt, vol. 1, no. 192, March 2012, p. 80.

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